Carrie's Secret
by lnvaderZlM
Summary: Ever since she watched 'A Pony's Tail', Carrie has been secretly obsessed with ponies. She can't reveal this to anyone - her reputation as an emo would be ruined if people found out about this! But what happens when Gumball finds out...? Can he keep a secret?
1. Death and Ponies

**A/N: Hey! Just another fic I've been working on lol. Dunno how long it's gonna go, or if it's even gonna go on. But here it is!**

"_And that is aaaaallll…that wuv's abouuuuut…"  
"And we'll recaaaallll…as time runs ouuuuuut!..."  
"That it onlyyyy…took a momeeeeeeent,"  
"To be wuuuuuved...a whole life looooong!"_

Carrie had just finished watching PON-E, the story of a lowly peasant pony named PON-E vying for the love of Twilly, princess and heir to the throne of Luna, kingdom of ponies and friendship. Twilly had finally learned the meaning of love, and the two of them joined hooves and shared a long, slow, passionate nuzzle (which was basically a kiss in pony terms). It was extremely babyish, as evidenced by the use of the word "wuv" in place of "love", but it had a lot of emotional moments, and the mood of the ending was just so beautiful that Carrie couldn't help but cry!

"Ahhhh, ponies are so pretty…" Carrie whispered to herself. Suddenly, she heard knocking on her door. She quickly shut off her TV, stashed her DVD's under her bed, and assumed a casual position on the couch. "Come in!" she called.

"Hey, Carrie!" It was Gumball and Darwin. "I was just wondering if you had a PON-E dvd…"

"Um, uh…no, why would I have _that _lame kid's movie?" she asked, pretending to be annoyed.

"Larry said some ghost girl rented their only copy, and you were the only ghost girl I know. I dunno, I just figured maybe you rented it for laughs?"

"Ha! I wouldn't waste my time on such garbage...why're _you _looking for it anyway?"

"Anais wanted to watch it. She's a fan of Pick-a-Star movies and ponies, so a Pick-a-Star movie _about _ponies was something she definitely wanted to see."

"Well, I don't have it."

"Yeah, I guess it was silly of me to ask. Well, see you at school tomorrow!" Gumball and Darwin left her house.

_Phew, _she thought. Her secret was safe for another day. She flipped the TV back on and watched the credits roll to the song _High in the Sky_.

* * *

At school the next day…

"Studies and statistics have shown that, while most teenagers and 'pre-teens' have grown out of watching cartoons, many continue to do so late into adulthood."

Mr. Small started his boring lecture on kids growing up. It was putting the entire class to sleep. Unfortunately, Carrie, being a restless ghost, was forced to listen to the entire thing. But then, things got interesting…

"One show in particular has garnered a surprising amount of fans well older than its target demographic of five-year old girls. A show about ponies. Would anyone like to know the name of this show?"

Carrie was tempted to raise her hand. But she couldn't do _that _– the whole class would find out about her love of ponies, and she wouldn't be allowed in the emo club anymore! Then again…

"Anyone at all? No? Then I guess we're moving on."

She looked around the classroom. No one was paying attention to him – Alan drew a face on his back and turned around to sleep, Penny, Carmen, Teri, and Molly were discussing their latest cheer routine via text, Dolly melted into her cone because she was assigned the window seat that day, and Gumball and Darwin never notice what's going on around them in class. Quickly she rose her hand and caught Mr. Small's attention.

"Oh, Carrie, you're interested in ponies?"

"N-no, I just wanted to laugh at it and make everyone who watches that show feel bad about themselves. Geez."

"Young lady, you should know, I don't condone that kind of behavior. I'll expect you in my office after school for detention. Now, moving on…"

_Ugh… _Carrie thought as she sighed. At least no one noticed her making a big deal about the name of the show.

When class finally ended, she headed to Mr. Small's office for her one hour detention. Bobert waited for her around the corner.

"So, you are into ponies?" he said loud enough for Jamie to hear. She stopped, sensing an opportunity to insult someone.

Carrie panicked. "Uh, _no_, I hate ponies! What _ever _gave you the idea that I would _ever _like some stupid…flea-ridden…quadrupedal…flea-bag! Ugh!" she tried to say as convincingly as she could.

"But according to my observations in class-"

"Hey, Bobert, there's an electrical problem in the janitor's closet here, why don't you go check it out?" Carrie says, shoving him inside and locking the door. "Hmph. Dork." Carrie says to Jamie.

"He he, yeah, what a dork." Jamie says, walking off satisfied that someone got hurt.

Carrie phased through the locked door to talk to Bobert.

"Sorry about that." Carrie apologized for shoving him in the closet and calling him a dork.

"None taken." Bobert awkwardly replied.

"Huh?"

"Wrong phrase. What I meant was, 'No problem'."

Carrie gave him a look. "Anyway, do you know what show Mr. Small was talking about?"

"So you really are into ponies."

"Shhh! Yes, I watched _A Pony's Tail_ and that made me obsessed with ponies, okay?"

"Ha-ha-ha, ponies. Did you know that ponies-"

"That's great, Bobert, but focus! What TV show was Mr. Small talking about?"

"I don't know." Bobert stated matter-of-factly.

"…**What?**" Carrie got a little annoyed. "Then why did you stop to ask me if I liked ponies?"

"Just making 'small talk', as you organics say."

Carrie picked up the mop bucket and held it above Bobert, intending to short him out.

"Wait! If you want to know about ponies, why not talk to Gumball? His sister forces him to watch those kinds of shows with her." Bobert said, backing away from the ghost.

"Hmm, all right. I'll give it a shot. But I can't have you walking around knowing my secret." Carrie said, dumping the water over him.

Bobert buzzed as his systems failed, and Carrie quickly hit the button to reset his memory. "See ya, Bobert!" she cried, as she left for detention.

"Who…is Bobert?" he said confusedly.

* * *

When Carrie finally got out of Mr. Small's cramped office, she immediately ran out to find Gumball. As expected, he was long gone. He tends to go straight home after school.

_Drat, _she thought. _What am I going to do now?_

Suddenly, she heard tiny footsteps behind her.

_What, did someone bring a baby to school?_

It wasn't a baby, though – it was Anais!

"Hey! You!" Carrie called out to the cute pink rabbit.

"Huh?"

"Aren't you Gumball's little sister?"

"Sorry, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

Carrie laughed. "I'm not a stranger. You went to that Halloween party with me, remember?"

Anais pondered a bit. "Oh yeah! You called me a 'baby disguised as a cheesecake', then left me to hang out in the rain…" she said flatly, walking away annoyed.

"Wait!" Carrie called out. Anais ignored her.

"Wait, um…your brother asked me to…pick up some DVD's for you to watch tonight?"

"I'm listening…"

"Sorry if it was supposed to be a surprise. He mentioned some kind of 'pony' TV series? That a lot of older kids are into, as well?"

"Oh, ew, _ponies_…" Anais replied in disgust. "I stopped obsessing over pony movies after 'A Pony's Tail'. That movie was _lame_."

Carrie flared up in anger. "You take that back!" she yelled, instantly covering her mouth when she realized what she had done.

Anais looked amused. "Why do you care about my opinion on a _pony _movie? Unless…you're a closet pony lover!" she teased.

"N-no I'm not, shut up!" Carrie was sweating by now.

"Hmph. Who's the little teeny weeny baby cheesecake now?" Anais taunted. She loved getting revenge.

"Look, you'd better keep quiet about this, or I'll…I'll…!" Carrie struggled to think of a threat.

"You'll _what_?"

"I'll do _this!_" Carrie was hesitant to resort to this, but her challenge pushed her over the edge. She forcefully made her way into Anais's mouth and possessed her. She turned a sickly pink and snarled a bit. She looked like some lunatic zombie! "If you tell _anyone_, then I'll take your body on a joy ride, got it?" Carrie eased her grip for a moment, giving control back to Anais to let her respond to her proposal.

"Okay! Okay, I won't tell anyone! Sheesh."

Carrie released herself from Anais's body. "I'll know if you tell anyone. So you better watch yourself." Anais just shivered and walked towards her father's car. Carrie floated home.

As she pulled up to her front door, a thought occurred to her. If Anais wasn't into ponies anymore, why did Gumball ask for the PON-E DVD on her behalf?


	2. Zombies and Unicorns

**A/N: Hay! Sorry I've been neglecting this fic lol. Also, I'm not a brony! :p Keep that in mind as you read on!**

The next day, at school…

Carrie again sat at class, listening to her teacher drone on about computers. She signed up for a computer science class because she assumed they would be using computers most of the time, meaning she could surf the web for the entire class. Turns out, she was wrong. This was a programming _theory _class, as in, no hands on work. So she just sat there, thinking of a way to figure out the title of that pony series. She looked at Gumball.

_What are you hiding…_ she thought to herself, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Psst…" a voice whispered to her right. She ignored it.

"PSST…!" it came again.

"PSST…PSST…PSST…PSST…" Finally, Carrie turned to address it.

"What?" she whispered angrily.

"You lookin' to pound Gumball, too?" It was Banana Joe. He looked furious.

"Maybe. Why, what do you have against him? Aren't you friends?"

"We have a sort of…'on/off' relationship. Sometimes we're pals, sometimes we're not. Today, though, we're definitely _not_…" he said with the rage of a thousand suns.

Carrie sighed. "What'd he do to you this time?" she asked uninterestedly.

"Not 'this time', for all time! I never did get to pay him back for chewing my pen, or ruining my school photo! I looked like a freak in the yearbook!" he said, gritting his teeth.

Carrie remembered that. His picture was so humiliating that she almost laughed. Almost. It was Gumball's picture that pushed her over the edge.

"At least it wasn't as bad as his," she reminded him.

"That doesn't excuse what he did to me! Gumball Watterson, you will pay!" he shouted.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'll pay you back…someday…" he said, going back to chewing his pen.

"Hey, you still owe me ten bucks, too!" Anton said.

"And you owe _me _two dollars!" Carmen said.

Banana Joe ripped his book in half.

_Come to think of it, Gumball still hasn't paid back the five dollars I lent him last month, _Carrie thought.

"Settle down, class. Now, Gumball, can you come up to the board and write code that demonstrates how to create a Hashtable?" Mr. Small asked.

"Eh." Gumball walked up to the board and wrote _'#table'_.

"Uh, what is _that_?"

"Hashtag table! Tablez4lyfe!" he said, making weird gestures with his hand.

"…Sit down, Gumball."

He returned to his seat, looking smug. He actually thinks he answered correctly…

"Would anyone else like to try?" Bobert's hand shot up. "Anyone other than Bobert…?" Silence. Mr. Small sighed. "Okay Bobert, show the class how it's done…_again._"

* * *

The rest of the class consisted of Bobert writing line after line of code. No one understood what he was doing; even Mr. Small, who was supposed to be teaching _them _looked confused. When Bobert finally finished, the entire board was filled with text.

"What is all this supposed to be?!" Mr. Small exclaimed.

"I created a Hashtable, like you said."

Mr. Small pored over his code. Carrie did the same – even though she never pays attention in class, she still knows a bit about programming.

The reason Bobert's code was so long is obvious – instead of importing and using the predefined Hashtable class, he wrote his own version of it from scratch. Unfortunately, Mr. Small had no idea how machines worked. He was just teaching straight out of the book.

Eventually, mercifully, the bell rang, and Mr. Small excused the class, hoping they'd forget about this ordeal by tomorrow. This time, Carrie caught Gumball on the way out.

"Hey, Gumball, can I ask you something?" she asked warily.

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah, go ahead."

"Erm…do you like-"

Suddenly, Tobias cut in. "Dude! You gotta come over to my place! _Zombie Mayhem IV: Give me back my Head _just came out, and I bought it!"

Anton and Idaho flanked him, huge grins on their faces.

"Whoa! That's the most hyped game of the year! I'm _definitely _coming." Gumball said excitedly. "Sorry, what were you saying, Carrie?"

"Um…"

"Carrie! You should totally come, too! I'm sure you'll love this game – there's zombies!" Tobias invited her.

"Y-yeah, sure. Zombies are so cool."

_Drat. When will I get my chance?_

* * *

The little party at Tobias's house took up the entire evening. She, Anton, and Idaho were watching Tobias play. Gumball and Darwin were whispering to each other on the side. Suddenly, she heard her name in their conversation. She listened intently.

"...Oh, and also, I think Carrie likes me." Gumball said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, before Tobias invited us, she came up to me, looking all shy."

"Whoa."

"I know! Then, she says she wants to ask a question. What was that question, you ask? It started with 'Do you like...'"

"Whoa! It's obvious she was going to ask you if you liked her!"

"I know."

Carrie felt herself turning red. Not out of embarrassment, but out of anger.

_Me? Like Gumball? Puh-lease! _she thought. She was about to set things straight when Tobias offered her the controller.

"Want a turn?" he asked.

She gave an angry look to Gumball. "Sure." She had some anger and stress to release. She picked up the controller, and...

For the next two hours, Carrie rampaged through level after level, never losing a life.

"Woo! Nice one, Carrie!" Tobias cried out after she took out what was supposed to be the hardest boss in the game, all without taking ah it.

"Who knew Carrie was so good at video games?"

Carrie wiped the sweat from her brow as she finished the level with no lives lost. "Thanks, guys. It's nothing, really." she said modestly. She scanned the room – Tobias, Anton, Idaho… "Where's Gumball?" she asked.

"Oh, he left a while ago. Said something about a meatloaf in his locker." Tobias answered.

"…" Carrie was dismayed. She wanted to ask him about the TV series, but that obviously wasn't going to happen now…

"Oh well." She picked up the controller and continued playing into the wee hours of the night.

* * *

By midnight, Carrie was on her way home. It wasn't that _she _needed sleep; rather, her mortal friends needed their sleep. She would've played all night long if it weren't for Tobias's parents throwing them all out. His mother's words were especially vicious.

_"Go haunt some other house, you undead freak!"_ her voice rang in Carrie's ears.

_"Harsh…"_

_"Golly, what's got her potatoes in a sack?"_

Anton and Idaho had tried to comfort her, but Carrie just left. She happened upon Gumball's house. Part of her wanted to go in and shake him for answers. But then, he might take it the wrong way.

Suddenly, a light shone through the living room window. Curious, Carrie peeked in.

It was Gumball. He looked secretive – as though he were trying his best not to wake anyone up, in fear of them discovering what he was doing.

He was watching a pony show.

Carrie's eyes widened, but she forced herself to remain silent. Could this be the TV series Mr. Small was talking about? She watched an episode, hidden in the shadows, but close enough to see and hear what was going on.

It was a show about six ponies, each with varying but complementing personalities. There was the jock, the bumpkin, the peppy one, the snooty one…

…and Carrie loved it. She loved everything about the show. The characters were so likable, the plots were deep, and the animation was top notch.

Unfortunately, she missed the opening credits, and so she still didn't know the name of the show. She hoped Gumball would play another episode, but he shut the TV off and started heading back to his room.

Without thinking, Carrie stopped him.

Gumball looked back, eyes wide in horror, mouth gaping open.

"C-Carrie!" he whispered. "Fancy seeing you here!"

Carrie wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't just outright ask him. She decided to be a sneaky about it.

"I saw everything."

Gumball was silent. Finally, he spoke. "_Please don't tell anyone._"

"Mmm, I think I'll need some motivation…" she said.

"Ugh, fine." Gumball went up to a pair of his dad's pants, which were laying on the ground. He took out a wallet, pored through its contents, and handed a credit card to Carrie.

"I know it doesn't look like money, but my dad uses it to buy stuff all the time!" he said reassuringly.

"…Uh, thanks." Carrie was gonna have a good time tonight. "Anyway, what show were you watching?"

"…"

"…if you don't tell me, I'll just tell everyone you like ponies…"

"Little Sunshine Ponies!" he blurted out. "That's the show. Please don't tell!"

Carrie just nodded and flew off. She would look this up on the internet as soon as she got home.

* * *

The flight only took five minutes, but it felt like a year to Carrie. She couldn't wait to start streaming episodes of the TV show she just discovered.

_Let's see…'Little Sunshine Ponies…'_ she thought to herself as she typed.

No streams showed up. Just a bunch of news articles. Carrie sighed as she pored over them, looking for a stream, or a download link, or _anything_. But something caught her attention.

All the news articles – they were talking about how rare the show was. How only five DVD's were made, each containing all twenty episodes of the show. And how the show was off the air.

And one of those DVD's belonged to 'a young blue cat in Elmore'.

Carrie put her head on her desk and let out a huge, exasperated sigh.


End file.
